Mahatma Gandhi movie in Madurai

The original 81-minute film, `Mahatma Gandhi - 20th Century Prophet,' - photographed by A.K.Chettiar - a documentary film on Gandhi - was reportedly lost, but the original film released in 1953 in Hollywood is available with the Gandhi Museum, Madurai.

Neutrality of news publications and media

***Tamil Nadu Election Commission has asked for a explanation from DMK and Congress for using as many as 228 vehicles were used for election campaign.

A commission spokesman said similar show-cause notices had also been issued to other alliance partners of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) for violation of the model code of conduct.

***

These things happen, and I am not saying this is a crime. But the news has not reached the major public, because of domination of media by one single group.

Well, the media and publication business is dominated by one party and just dominating and having control over the news reaching the public. From a business perspective, this is how this marketing problem could be handled, but this is not a fair thing to do to the tamil nadu public.

Saturday morning is great!

I try to wake up early on saturday morning, because of couple of reasons.

1. Enjoy the moments of saturday morning.2. Have coffee and browse the news sites without any tension.3. there is no official work to do for next two days and we can be relaxed about the 2 days.4. The two days time is just our time and nobody else can take it up.5. It is totally family time.6. Listen to good tamil music from raaga.com or from our MP3s.7. Jog, Play.

Overall, it is our time and do just my personal stuff on saturday morning.So, I suggest to utilize the saturday morning as much as possible. Even saturday evening does not have this glory of the morning.If you miss it, you will get it back again only next week, after 5 solid working days!!

Difference between Focus on Problems, and Focus on Solutions!!

I got a mail from my brother-in-law this morning - which I thought is very useful and wanted to share!!

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (Ink won't flow down to the writing surface). In order to solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C. and what did Russian do...................................?? The Russians used a Pencil!!!

One of the most memorable case studies I came across on Japanese management was the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent whoopee amount to do so. But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, did not get into complications ofX-rays, etc but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switchedthe fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Moral of the Case study: "Always look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problem. So, learn to focus on solutions not on problems".

Take care of your heart

What are the five thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart?

1. Diet - Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil2. Exercise - Half an hour's walk, at least five days a week; avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longtime3. Quit smoking4. Control weight5. Control blood pressure and sugar

What does Bhagavad Gita teach?

What does the Bhagavadgita teach? You are free to act or not to act or choose how to act. Work is your jurisdiction. But after performance the result falls into the jurisdiction of laws of nature. The result does not belong to your jurisdiction.

Every action ends in a result: this is a scientific truth. Therefore if a contrary or unexpected result comes it should not disturb your mind because the result is not in your hands. You should not internalize the situation by considering yourself to be a failure because the result is an objective reality. Failure or success is a subjective perception. It is also affected by so many other factors like karma, which are simply beyond you. All you are expected to do, as an effective manager is work sincerely giving importance to minute details and with perfect concentration. This demands the practice of meditation which is yet another contribution of Indian philosophy. Concentration the mind eliminating any disturbing thought while you are in your workplace.

E factor leads E factor

Entrepreneurship is the best solution for removing poverty in India. If we have a 10% of this E factor, then we will become well to do. So the basic problem leads to literacy of the nation. If education is provided properly, then everybody tries to earn their own cup of rice, which leads to appoint right leaders and lead the country properly. Better education leads to E factor too.

India needs lots of entrepreneurs

India needs lot of entrepreneurs. This is what Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam also says. let us take a scenario- if more entrepreneurs(small/medium/large enterprises) are created, then that leads to new companies - see take for example Company X - since Company X will pay tax as a company and also all the employees are paying tax. All the employees are employed. Your family get savings, out of your salary. Since Company X is located in Madurai - you all must be having lunch and dinner in and around your area, which gets more business for the mess and restaurant. It actually goes on like a chain reaction, which improves more business, which is actually good for our indian economy - micro(individual/family) and macro(country) level.

Nice Book - I am Responsible

I was reading former Republican New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani's "Leadership"- "almost his work experience" was written there. He said in one of the chapters, that he has a board near his desk. It says - "I am responsible". This has lot of meaning to it. This realization is very important for every individual.

Cows on roads

Cows can be seen in India in the roads too. That is an inconvenience to the traffic and also it might make the road nasty. You can never see a cow roaming in the road in USA. Cows will be there wherever they are assigned to or in villages. This is something we have to learn from the US of America.

Importance of Automation

Automation is one of the things we should learn from western world. Everything is automated. There is a machine for everything. This is something which has to be learnt. This improves productivity. You might argue that this might take off some jobs, if we get machines for everything. I would say there will be jobs created in the factory were machines are created. This concept applies to software development also. If you want to automate some task, write a batch program or script to automate, so that you don't need to waste time by repeating some manual stuff.

Thank You Cheppandi

Convey your thanks to everybody, you feel like immediately. If you feel that you should convey Thanks to somebody and you have not conveyed, then that is equivalent to wrapping up a gift for a friend and not giving that gift to your friend.

A Wonderful Recognition Story

There is a very nice story my friend told sometime back. There was an employee called X. X was working in the ford motor company. He didn't like his job, because it was all monotonous job and he was becoming tired in mind. As usual one day he came to the factory and he was working the usual stuff of manufacturing nuts and bolts. Company Chairman C crossed his seat and went into his office. After sometime chairman called him and told him come on in. X went in. C showed a world map to X and told him did you know, all the nuts and bolts YOU MANUFACTURE are used to make cars, which are running across the world. In turn, you are one of the persons, who is helping in producing prestigious cars which are running across the world. From that day X realized what he is doing in his job and moreover he felt recognized and he did his best on his job.

New Hare and Tortoise Story

Old Story of Hare and Tortoise

Hare and Tortoise decided to race between themselves. As everybody knows, Hare is faster, but Tortoise is slower, in fact slowest. Though they both started together from start line, Hare came quite near the deadline. At that time, Hare thought “I have come so fast and the destination is near by only, so let me take some rest and then when tortoise comes, I shall complete the race”. What happened after that was – Hare slept off and it was in deep sleep. Tortoise came slow and steady and it reached the deadline and won the race.

New Story of the Hare and Tortoise

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race.The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race.He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ.

The hare woke up and realised that he'd lost the race. The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race.This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with.But then recently, someone told me a more interesting version of this story. It continues.The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some Defect Prevention (Root Cause Analysis). He realised that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed.This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

The moral of the story? Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. If you have two people in your organisation, one slow, methodical and reliable, and the other fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliable chap will consistently climb the organisational ladder faster than the slow, methodical chap.It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable. But the story doesn't end here. The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realised that there's no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. He thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral of the story?

First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency.In an organisation, if you are a good speaker, make sure you create opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to notice you.If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of research, make a report and send it upstairs. Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement.The story still hasn't ended.The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realised that the last race could have been run much better.So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back.On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.

The moral of the story?

It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure.The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could. In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort.

Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.

When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he was faced with intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into Coke's growth. His executives were Pepsi-focussed and intent on increasing market share 0.1 per cent a time.

Goizueta decided to stop competing against Pepsi and instead compete against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth.He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of an American per day? The answer was 14 ounces. What was Coke's share of that? Two ounces. Goizueta said Coke needed a larger share of that market. The competition wasn't Pepsi. It was the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit juices that went into the remaining 12 ounces. The public should reach for a Coke whenever they felt like drinking something.To this end, Coke put up vending machines at every street corner. Sales took a quantum jump and Pepsi has never quite caught up since.To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches us many things.

Important lessons are:• that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady; • work to your competencies; • pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers; • never give up when faced with failure; • and finally, compete against the situation. Not against a rival.

90/10 rule

90/10 rule

The 90/10 Principle Discover the 90/10 Principle. It will change your life (at least the way you react to situations). What is this principle?10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% is decided by how you react. What does this mean? We really have no control over 10% of what happens to us. We cannot stop the car from breaking down; the plane being late inarriving, which throws our whole schedule off. A driver may cut us off in traffic. We have no control over this 10%. The other 90% isdifferent. You determine the other 90%. How? By your reaction. You cannot control a red light, but YOU can control how you react. Let's use an example. You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee on to your business shirt. Youhave no control over what just happened. What happens next will be determined by how you react. You curse. You harshly scold your daughter forknocking the cup over. She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup tooclose to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus. Your spouse must leave immediately for work. You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 110km/h in a 80 km/h speed limit. After a 15-min delay and throwing $300 and some demerit points (traffic fine) away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. You arrive at the offi! ce 20mins late, because of how you reacted in the morning. Why did you have a bad day? A) Did the coffee cause it? B) Did your daughter cause it? C) Did the policeman cause it? D) Did you cause it? The answer is obviously YOU. You had no control overwhat happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those five seconds iswhat caused your bad day. Here is what could have and should have happened . Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, "It's ok honey, you just need to be more careful next time". Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to lookthrough the window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves. You and your spouse kiss before you go to work. You arrive five minutes early and cheerfu! lly greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good the day you are having. Notice the difference? Two different scenarios. Both started the same. Both ended different. Why? Because of how you REACTED. YOU really do not have any control over 10% of what happens. The other 90% was determined by your reaction. Here are some ways to apply the 90/10 principle. If someone says something negative about you, don't be a sponge. Let the attack roll off like water on glass. You don't have to let the negative comment affect you. React properly and it will not ruin your day. A wrong reaction could result in losing a friend, being fired, getting stressed out, etc. How do you react if someone cuts you off in traffic? Do you lose your temper? Pound on the steering wheel and hur! t your own fingers? Do you curse? Does yourblood pressure rocket? Do you try and bump them? WHO CARES if you arrive 10 secs later at work? Why let the cars ruin your drive? Remember the90/10 principle, and do not worry about it. You are told you lost your job. Why lose sleep and get irritated? It will work out. Use your worrying energy and time into finding another job. The plane is late; it is going to mangle your schedule for the day. Why take out your frustration on the flight attendant? She has no control over what is going on. Use your time to study, get to know the other passengers. Why get stressed out? It will just make things worse. Now you know the 90-10 principle. Apply it and you will be amazed at the results. You will lose nothing if you try it. The 90-10 principle is incredible. It seem! s simple commonsense but very few apply this principle! The result? Millions of people are suffering from undeserved stress, court trials, problems and heartaches. They never seem to be a success in life. Bad days follow bad days. Terrible things seem to be constantly happening. There is constant stress, lack of joy, and broken relationships. Worry consumes time. Anger breaks friendships and life seems drearyand is not enjoyed to the fullest. Friends are lost. Life is a bore and often seems cruel. Does this describe you? If so, do not be discouraged. You can be different! Understand and apply the 90/10 principle. It will change your life! HELPHING HANDS IS BETTER THAN PRAYING LIPS

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Mahatma Gandhi and Madurai

Gandhiji, during his visit to Madurai stayed in the residence of Sri Ramji Kalyanji, 175-A, West Masi Street, Madurai, who respectfully invited him to his house, on 21.09.1921. During his stay there at night he was mentally agitated and worried to think of the various farmers and poor people on his way dressed in scarce cloths that is only a small towel like dhothi around the waist and were shivering with cold, while he was wearing long turbans khurtha and dhoties.

So overnight he took a decision that he should be a model to everyone and to dress in a simple manner like the peasants and poor people he witnessed in his journey to Madurai and he carried out this from the very next day itself. On 22-09-1921 (the next day) morning all were shocked to see him in his new pattern of dress and Gandhiji explained them about his decision and he followed this throughout his life. Then he attended the meetings in Madurai (The place now called as Gandhi Pottal) at 0700 hrs, explaining the reason for his new mode of dress therein. Then he attended the meeting at Karaikudi and returned to his destination.

Vijayakanth's difference

While DMK and AIADMK is proposing to give Color TV, Free Rice, Rice for one or two Rupees and free land etc., you know what Actor turned poilitician DMDK chief Captain Vijayakanth had proposed to give to people when he wins.

Oru pasu maadu - One cow.Kuran, Bible and Bhagavad Gita to people in the respective temple and religious places..

It is good to see his good heart, but I think he is missing business acumen here in order to advertise himself and his party, while his competitors (opposition parties) are working towards it as a business.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Tamil Nadu State Elections 2006 Update

It is my pleasure to pen this article - Tamil Nadu Elections 2006. I always wanted to write about the elections 2006, since lot of hot things are happenning!

The opinions below are my personal opinions and does not come from an organization's perspective. As a citizen of India, I have right to express my thoughts. Well coming to the article -

AIADMK has done some good things in this ruling period. AIADMK supremo Ms. J Jayalalitha had worked hard to get some of the plans work for the poor and needy. Some of the autocratic decisions are not acceptable in this rule. She has not cooperated very well with the central government, because many tamil nadu ministers in central are from the opposition parties. It is heard that AIADMK is offering crores to actors and actresses for joining their party. AIADMK had been opposing the manifesto published by the opposition parties for their free color TV and Rs.2 for 1 Kg rice. Now, they have come up with some refined manifesto of providing 10Kg rice free, which when calculated for the approximate budget comes up as a bad budget of 800 crores, which is not feasible at all.

DMK did a good rule couple of years back, but did not win in that particular elections, which was surprising. Well, nothing is predictable. Currently DMK has come up with manifesto stating - free color TV and Rs.2 for 1 Kg rice. Atlast, using the media power DMK has, it is being justified that it is possible. Actor cum Director K.Bhagyaraj is campaigning DMK. Actor Sarath Kumar and actress Radhika left the party to join the opposition AIADMK, because of disrespect to him by an Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

Many projections say that AIADMK has a higher hand, but considering some recent changes in their manifesto, we cannot say anything - about who is going to win this elections.

If you are watching only SUN TV, you will vote for Rising Sun - DMK.If you are watching only JAYA TV, you will vote for Two Leaves - AIADMK.These two parties use their media to a great extent.

Vijaya T Rajendran has floated a party recently - Latchiya DMK - LDMK and joined hands with DMK.

A new entrant to politics has to be mentioned here as well. Actor turned Politician, DMDK Chief, Captain Vijayakanth. It is said that Vijayakanth is stealing the votes of AIADMK, than that of DMK. His propogando is against the rule of DMK and ADMK. He claims, Dravidian parties ruled so far had been cheating people so far and had not really been effective. He also seem to have a good vote bank with him. All the Best to him. However, both the parties had said he is not a threat to them at all. Also, Vijayakanth seem to use Dr. MG Ramachandran's name lot more than AIADMK!

All India Forward Bloc chief Karthik working in one side. He comes in news at times, that he has got threats from a party for not contesting. This is because he was requested by their party members to contest against a heavy-weight - AIADMK Supreo Ms.Jayalalitha. Recently a member of AIFC attempted suicide and he was dead today.

The projection mentioned above could be kind of old, and it is projected by The Hindu - leading south indian newspaper. As per the situations currently, anything could change in people's mind.

Everyone's campaign meeting could get crowd, but nobody can say who will win in this Tamil Nadu Elections 2006.

Let us wait and see for May 8th!!

All the Best to all the parties contesting this elections and hope whoever wins will serve the state to the best possible. -

State Tamil Nadu is getting scrambled!

The rice scheme announced by AIADMK has astonishing financial implications to the state government. Here is a simple calculation - Please check out a ORU CUP COFFEE BLOG for more details. (Thanks Jags)

Tamil Nadu - Literacy Percentage!

This is a very interesting map - I spent 10 minutes taking a look at this map. I had to derive lot of things from this map. i had so many questions in my mind popping up?

Let me list out some of them here. I would like to answer those questions in one of the forthcoming articles as well.

1. I could not derive anything for the (good) cause of the high literacy rate of Tuticorin, Nilgiris. Kanyakumari and Nilgiris district is literate may because it is near Kerala, but we need to find the reason behind tuticorin, which is a good thing and we need to apply in other districts?

2. Why would there be a differentiation in literacy rate, when the government plans apply a same plan all across tamil nadu.

3. Why Madurai is not highest in literacy percentage? I am happy that atleast it is in secondary stage!

4. Is this differentiation because of politics or is it because of people? Probably because of people response towards the government plans.

Crores for campaigning

I am really ashamed and surprised to hear this - Crores are being offered for actors to join and campaign for the party!!:-(

It really frustrates me that we are still being fooled by an actor campaigning for a party!

Next to that - the political party offers lot of cash for joining them. I don't know how do they get so much money, by just being a position in administration!

In my life, it is a dream to make just ONE CRORE, and I hope it just won't become a dream! But these guys have so much crores to offer for their business.

It makes me angry in fact, but not sure how to express it. Hence this blog article.

Some of the (rumours)it might not be accurate or might not be correct - 1. Vaiko was offered 40 crores to join the party.2. Top actor like Kamala haassan is offered 100 crores to join and campaign for the party.3. Actor Sarath Kumar and Radhika is offered with 40 crores to join the party!

These are some of the party's rumour. I will pray god for all these be false statements.

Disclaimer: All the articles in this blog are my personal opinions and does not reflect any organization's opinions. Any organization is not responsible for the opinions above. These articles are not to hurt anybody.

Drinking in the day time!

In Madurai, it is very common for some of the road-romeos, to drink in the day-time, even though they don't have money for food and to give to the family.

These folks won't even have job, food to feed their family - but he would be the first person to appear while the wine shop opens. He will drink and lie down in the road unconciously.

Even though, drinking in the morning is common in western culture, they will make sure they are doing their work properly in their weekdays and enjoy in weekends and vacation times. But our poor folks are really spoilt because of liquor, when they don't even have money for lunch/dinner.

There are various rehabilitation centres even in Madurai working on these kind of cases.

The real sufferers are the family women, who do not work, but expect money from husband, because he is considered the actual bread-winner. I have myself seen many cases like this very closely.

Atlast, you know what happens usually? Yes - the ladies start working to their capacity. That is what happens.

There are various SHG(Self Help Women's Group) who have started working and they are rocking in whatever they are doing, which is improving their life and their children's life to the maximum!

Boiled(Avicha) Kadalai

Whenever I hear about Kadalai(Ground Nut), I always remember my days in Madurai College House Road - Town Hall Road, Madurai.

I used to go in my two-wheeler, park it in the parking places of that road. There are four-wheeled wooden carts in which they have the lights for the night. These carts sell boiled ground nuts. These ground nuts comes with salty water and the street vendor gives it rolled in a newspaper - ex:kunkumam magazine paper and it is really tasty in that environment. I used to buy boiled ground nuts and walk in that road having the ground nuts slowly one by one.

If you are in Madurai, try the same thing and I am sure you will enjoy it!

Madurai News April 19th 2006

Election News:

173 nominations have been received for the 10 constituencies in Madurai District, District Collector D. Raajendiran said today. The last day for withdrawal is April 24. He told newsmen here that Election observers for all the 10 constituencies had been named. Out of 15,32,230 voters, 75 per cent had been given Electors' photo Identity Card. 100 per cent coverage is expected before this month end.---------------------------------------Heavy Rains in Madurai---------------------------------------DMDK-DPI workers clash in Madurai----------------------------------------DMK candidate's assurance to voters Madurai, Apr 19: Former Speaker P.T.R.Palanivel Rajan, contesting from the Madurai Central constituency, today assured that an IT park would be established in this city if he was elected.

Palanivel Rajan played a major role in the development of the city during his tenure as Speaker in the DMK regime of 1996-01.

Talking to newsmen here,Palanivelrajan said a recent survey had revealed that most of the employees of the IT firms across the country and abroad were from Madurai.The city would prosper if they worked here,he said.

He also assured that he would take up his pet project of establishing an All India Medical Research Centre in this city and modernise and expand the city airport.

Promising to lay a world class road around the Meenakshi temple,and approach roads to the main Church and Mosque in the city,he said he would also take steps to expedite the Ellis Nagar and KoodalNagar bridge work for which money was sanctioned during the DMK period.

He assured that the two main channels running across the city,would be cleaned.

Kolangall and Selvi - SUN TV Serials

I cannot believe I am stuck with SUN TV serials. I remember, once upon a time I used to think and talk about the people who sit before the TV for watching serials!

Now I am also doing for these two serials in SUN TV - Kolangall and Selvi.Kolangall is acted by Devayani in lead role.Selvi is acted by Radhika, the chief of RADAAN corporation, which is in market too for more than a year.

The story of these serials revolves around emotional women, brave women and manipulative and cunning women. It is kind of interesting to watch.

The directors make sure the audience come back to the seat same time tomorrow, to follow the story. In addition to that, they don't move the story very fast. Worst part is - they telecast the serials in between the advertisements (commercials).

If you get a chance, please try to watch either of these serials! It comes in SUN TV by 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM weekdays.

NGO resource centre in Madurai

Japanese Consul-General in Chennai Yoshiaki Kodaki inaugurated the centre of EKTA, an NGO involved in women and youths' development.

Illiteracy, ignorance of rights, lack of control over resources and lack of skills are hindering women's development. A $ 57,000 grant had been used to build the facility. The centre would offer programmes and services for betterment of women, according to a release here today.

Refresh - F5 button in life

Take vacation appropriately. This is one way you could recharge your batteries. You have seen "F5" button in your computer key board? You know what is that for. It is for refreshing and to come back with new data. Same thing applies in our lives too. Work hard for 6 months and then take a vacation for a week. Man..I am telling you...You will be a new person and you will find lot of changes in you and you will find new ideas, new mistakes you have done in past to rectify etcetra.

Restart Button in life!

Sleep for atleast 6-8 hours a day. Do you know why there is a "Restart/Shutdown/StandBy" button is computer. If you are finding a problem in microsoft application, the first aid to rectify the problem is to restart the machine. 80% of the problems gets rectified, when you restart the machine. Similarly, if you are struggling with a problem in your work, take a break or if it is late go home and come back fresh in the morning and that too early to office. You will not believe me - You will have amazing results. I have seen this happen to me lot of times. So taking break in your work and sleeping for minimal hours is absolutely necessary.

Do not try, Just Do it!!

Do not try. Just do it. I joined my first company and I was having my orientation in a hall in the "The Capitol", Bangalore. Global HR was giving his session sometime in the afternoon. He is a terrific guy as a HR and he was telling stories to the college grads turning Professionals. He was telling about the idea of the Best Employee award. I was very excited to hear that topic and I was shaking my head more than required. He noticed me in the crowd and called me to the podium. He told me will you become the best employee and get an award this forthcoming year. I said I will "try". Then he took out his cellphone and placed on the LCD projector. Then he said try to lift the cell phone. I realized what he was conveying to me. Then I said I will do that Sir and I just lifted the cell phone, without saying that I will try. That was a terrific lesson for me and I thought you all will like it. I see there is lot of education in this. Also you can note that in the whole book you can't find the word "TRY", except for the words for this incident.

Start Early for the day's work!

When you start your day early, you will have an edge in your life and you will have high feel-good factor. I am saying this because when you start your day early, you have an edge that you have started your day ahead of the world. You can complete more 70% of work from 7AM or 8AM to 11AM, rather than the period 10AM to 5PM. Also you can avoid the traffic. You will be reaching the office easily without traffic problems, without accidents, in other words reach office safe, without pollution. If you start your day early, you can complete your work early and you can have more personal life in the evening.

Be Pro-active

Being pro-active will not only make you a best employee, but also a great leader. You should be able to think first, before anybody else could think about it. Be the first to learn. Be the first to think about the new concept. Start reading latest magazines and read the technical websites related to your profession. If you are a software engineer, read "Express Computer", "DQ Week", "PC Quest", "Computer World" etc., This will give you lot of knowledge about what is happenning in the market. You will be able to pour lot of ideas in the technical or planning or status meeting. You must dream yourself as a leader. You must lead with ideas. When you start thinking first, you will be identified by the management as a leader and you eventually become the leader of your team members.

Rude Cab Driver

Yesterday I had to take a taxi for a short appointment three miles away. I booked a cab from Yellow Cab Service. I had no surprise to see taxi drivers of different races at different times. This time it was an Indian, speaking Hindi.

We were really frustrated to see that - he was on phone and was not considering us even though we were sitting in back seat. He didn't even ask where are we going!

After sometime, he talks to me through his rear view mirror asking for - where are we going, using a gesture in his hand, while he was on phone. I felt like calling the manager/customer support of the cab service. Well, didn't do that, for various reasons.

He was talking business on phone about loans, mortgage, buying and selling houses etc., Atlast, I had to tell him the way to go to my home.

Overall, I didn't like what the cab driver did to us. When someone is in a situation where customers are being interacted directly, as a customer I expect complete attention.

This is something similar to a bank cashier, reading some entertainment magazine in his office time, when he is supposed to transact cash between the bank and the customers.

Well, atlast I reached my home safely, and I hope I don't travel with the same cab driver ever in my life again. God Bless this Cab Driver.

BTW, the grocery store, I mentioned in one of my previous articles, was about SAFEWAY Grocery Store, Fairfax.

Status Reporting in work is very important

Status Reporting is one of the important things to impress your boss. If you are working late in the night and you are completing the work at 1:00AM. Before you leave for the day, send a mail to the team and to the manager appropriately. This will show that you have been working late dedicated. I am not counselling you to show-off that you are working hard. But there are two parameters to be considered. Credibility and Visibility. Both these parameters are like two eyes for you in order to present yourself effectively. Credibility stresses the point for you to work harder, I am talking about the real work. Visibility stresses the point that the work you are doing has to be conveyed directly or indirectly to your immediate manager. Make sure your work's results reaches your leader and manager. If either one of the parameter is missing you will not be able to succeed. In this new world, if you are going to work harder and nobody is going to notice, all of your work is going to be wasted. Or in another hand, if you just do not do work and you try to showoff, sooner or later, you will be blacklisted very easily by the manager for not doing the work, even though you might have got short term benefits out of it. So I say have credibility and then visibility too. If you are walking out from your seat to drink water, do not walk out without a paper or a file...You know what I am talking about!

In MADURAI, they have created a colony which is a prestigious address and a landmark in the city.This residential colony " Parsn Srishti" - 1,40,000 sq. ft., is beautifully landscaped and compounded with 24 hours security.

Samrudhi Mahal", a beautiful office building is also in the same complex.

Virumandi - Chandiyar

I like this photo very much - couple of reasons are there for that -

1. Story is based on people from Madurai.2. rough men with moustaches3. Angry men with different spiritual manifestation on their forehead - one vishnu, blank(atheist) and siva.4. Interesting thing is all these faces are connected.5. think chains on their neck.6. White Shirts and Dhothies!

Madurai Veeran

Madurai Veeran was a real life hero who lived in the early part of the seventeenth century. Though he came from the cobbler community, he was a great warrior who was always ready to fight to protect his people.

At the same time, there was an invincible warlord by name Sangili Karuppan who was terrorizing the people of Madurai that was ruled at that time by the king Thirumalai Nayakkar. Madurai Veeran, finally, was the one who defeated Sangili Karuppan.

After defeating Sangili Karuppan, Madurai Veeran was appointed as one of the generals under Thirumalai Nayakkar.

Madurai Veeran fell in love with one of the maids in the king's palace. Madurai Veeran, married her inspite of opposition from the king who could not allow someone from the cobbler community to a marry a woman from a high caste. And Thirumalai Nayakkar ordered that the limbs of Madurai Veeran be severed. And so it was done. Madurai Veeran, the invincible warrior, who fought for the good of his people was left to bleed to death.

And strangely, soon after Madurai Veeran's death Thirumalai Nayakkar's body was found at the bottom of a well. And that was the end of his era.

And for this reason, before you enter the Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple, you get to meet Madurai Veeran, the temple guardian.

And that guardian god, sitting on his huge horse with a thick black moustache, bulging bloodshot eyes, and a huge sword in his hand, outside of every village in Tamil Nadu is the same warrior, who probably gave his life fighting to protect his people. And he is reverentially called as Iyenar.

In a sense Madurai Veeran and Iyenar are one and the same. And for all those who hail from the soil of those great selfless warriors, there is a part of them still living in us.

Note: This article is an extract from an Yahoo Group Message posted by Madurai Veeran. Thank You to Madurai Veeran! Credit goes to you!!